


the man with a plan

by tvfanatic97



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 07:18:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19718860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tvfanatic97/pseuds/tvfanatic97
Summary: The way Peter sees it- though his "woo MJ whilst on their European science trip" plan hadn't gone accordingly, the end-result was more or less what he'd wanted so he figures his plans to woo MJ can't be all that bad.-Or: Five times Peter comes up elaborate plans to surprise MJ over the course of their relationship and it all goes horribly wrong and the one time things actually go according to plan.





	the man with a plan

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, in case the tags weren't clear this contains FFH spoilers so pls beware if you've yet to see the film. Also the events of the FFH mid-credits scene never happened as far as this fic is (and also I am) concerned :)

One: The First Official Date Plan

Their return from their European trip marks the start of a tentative, blossoming romance…or _something_ , between him and MJ, and Peter is determined to not mess this up. He’s liked MJ for months now, and he can’t believe his luck that the one thing he’s really wanted is actually happening; MJ really likes him and came to find him in London, and kissed him.

He wants to do everything he can to be deserving of someone as great as MJ and wants to be a good boyfriend to her and after the semi-disastrous swing around the city that ended with MJ proclaiming she was “never doing that again”, Peter is determined to have a do-over of their first date. A proper date this time doing something MJ loves so he can show her he’s at least partly worthy of her liking him.

Peter wants to take MJ on the best first date ever, wants to woo her (his aunt May has always said he inherited his uncle Ben’s overly romantic tendencies) so he makes an elaborate plan for their elaborate first date.

  1. **Take MJ to the little café on the corner of 5 th that’s a hybrid of a regular café, a cat café with a small cornered off section where five cats belonging to the owner just lazily lay there all day and allow strangers to pet them, and a library of sort in the shelves brimming with an array of books lining all the free walls of the café.**
  2. **There he’ll buy her a cup of her favorite tea (plus re-fills since he suspects they’ll likely be there for the whole afternoon) and just let her be in her element for as long as she wants. Meanwhile he’ll get to watch her relaxed and soft in way she isn’t normally when they’re in school, doing what she loves with her nose buried in a book, brows furrowed as her attention is captivated by the plot of the novel so much so that she won’t even notice when hairs escape her low ponytail meaning he might get the chance to reach forward and brush her hair behind her ear to keep it out of her eyes so she doesn’t have to stop reading like in the cheesy rom-coms he and May watch all the time (MJ would probably call him lame for wanting to do something like that). Then when she wants a break from her reading and to get up to stretch her legs they could head to the back corner to play with the cats and kittens for a while.**
  3. **After spending hours in that little bit of heaven in Queens made especially for his girlfriend, he could then try to talk her into going on another swing with him. After plying her with the hybrid café place with its tea, books and kittens, he hopes that he’ll have some luck and she’ll agree despite her previous declaration that she’d never go on another swing with him again.**
  4. **Swing her to the rooftop where he’ll have set a picnic blanket and some fairy lights for mood lighting, along with sandwiches from Delmar’s for them to share, and a bag of cookies and cream Hershey’s kisses for MJ that she’ll slap his hand away from when he tries to help himself to just one.**
  5. **Get to watch the sun setting over the city he loves so dearly where they’ve both grown up and work up the nerve to kiss her again, like he’s been dreaming of doing since they shared their last (first ever!) kisses back in London on the Tower Bridge to end their first of many perfect days together.**



When the day of their first official date- he doesn’t count the failed swinging attempt as their first date- he’s so nervous, body practically vibrating as the anxiety rolls off him in waves. He has moments of panic in the lead up to it where he considers cancelling it because he’s so nervous because he wants today to go perfectly because MJ deserves the best, but following a pep talk from May who reassures him and tells him not to overthink this, he’s able to go through with his plan. Though he has to keep reassuring himself that he’s got this the entire way to MJ’s house.

He picks MJ up from her house and they head to the hybrid café on the subway, hands held tightly in each other’s despite the stifling heat of the New York summer that makes both of the palms sweaty. He’s too giddy about getting to hold MJ’s hand and be out in public with her like this to let go, and he figures MJ is giddy too given the way she’d interlocked their fingers when he’d first tried to pull his hand away after realising just how clammy both their hands are, effectively keeping his hand firmly in hers.

They’re still holding hands as they get off the subway and walk to the café together and as they order their drinks- a sugary Frappuccino that’s more whipped cream than actual coffee for him, and an oolong tea for MJ because she’s the type of person who refuses to drink iced drinks even when it’s hot outside- and she only let’s go when the barista calls out her name, removing her hand from his grasp so she can cradle the large cup of tea with both hands like one would a small child.

She leaves him to wait for his drink as she heads to a table in the corner of the café that is still by the window, likely to allow her to people watch, where he watches her place her cup down before she goes to look through the shelves to find a book to read.

Peter is so distracted watching her soft, almost awed, expression as she looks through the selections of books that fill the shelves that cover the walls around them that he misses when the barista calls out his name to let him know his drink is ready. The barista has to come around the counter and tap him on the shoulder to grab his attention and hand his drink to him.

“Thanks,” Peter mumbles embarrassedly, cheeks undoubtedly turning a nice hue of pink MJ had told him is fast becoming her favorite color ever since she’d first seen it in all its glory after she kissed him the first time back in London.

MJ is sliding into her seat with a novel in her hands just as he gets to the table she’s chosen so he settles into the seat opposite her.

She gives him a small smile, one that’s not quite a closed mouth smirk but not quite a full-on toothy grin, where he sees her front crooked tooth- his favorite one- peeking out slightly, before she looks down to start reading the novel in her hands.

Time passes in glorious slow motion as he sips on his Frappuccino, doing his best to pace himself so all the sugar doesn’t hit him at once, whilst he watches MJ intently reading her novel whilst occasionally sipping on her tea. And just as he envisioned, she’s so enthralled by the novel that her eyebrows are furrowed and her bottom lip is caught between her teeth in concentration.

Peter doesn’t bother to try and find a book to read as well, more than content to just watch MJ as she reads; no book he picks up could ever be as captivating and enrapturing as the girl who sits opposite him, who usually maintains a facial expression of apathy and boredom which all but melts away whenever she’s deep into a good novel like now.

He feels like the luckiest guy in the world because he gets to see her like this. Gets to call her his _girlfriend_.

“Are you just gonna watch me like a creep for the whole afternoon, loser?” MJ asks without looking up from her novel, breaking Peter out of the trance he was in just watching her.

“Uh,” Peter nervously clears his throat, reaches a hand up to scratch the back of his neck and he can feel the heat starting to rise in his cheeks at having been caught- though he shouldn’t be surprised, given how obvious he was being with his staring; he really is a creep, God. “S-sorry, I’ll stop,” he nervously stutters out.

MJ lowers her novel slightly and looks up to meet his gaze. “It’s okay, I don’t mind,” she breathes out.

“Yeah?” That’s not what he was expecting her to say.

“Yeah,” she affirms. “I-”

The rest of her words are interrupted by a commotion across the street at the bank opposite the café. They both turn to see what’s happening and see that Police cars and a S.W.A.T van have at some point congregated out on the street in front of the bank, signalling a likely robbery or worse is happening which means…

“Go,” MJ huffs out, though it’s not quite said with annoyance just a slightly begrudging acceptance that this is his life, and this is the norm for her now that she’s dating Spider-Man. Dates and life being interrupted by Peter having to run off to be Spider-Man.

“I’m really sorry MJ,” he apologises, already scrambling out of his seat and grabbing his backpack where his (new) suit is stuffed at the bottom beneath his schoolbooks he’d brought with him under some naïve pretence that he might have been able to do some homework whilst MJ read- she’d already done all her homework on the day it was set, unlike him.

He reaches across the table to press a chaste kiss to her cheek, and as she always does, MJ surprises him by turning her head so their lips meet instead. The kiss is brief, a barely there peck that lasts all too short a time, but it still causes a warm feeling to course through his veins spreading from the lips she has just kissed to all over his body, to his fingertips and to the tips of his toes. He can feel the way his mouth automatically stretches into a dopey grin as she pulls away.

She rolls her eyes at him, though now likely because of recent developments in their relationship- namely, her confessing that she liked him also- he can see the underlying fondness behind the action that he could never detect before. “Go get ‘em tiger,” she tells him with a barely contained smile of her own.

He watches her, grin still plastered on his face, as he lets the new nickname (he doesn’t want to be presumptuous as to call it a pet name) hang in the air between them. _Tiger_.

“What the hell are you waiting for? _Go_ , you dork,” MJ says, shaking her head and eyes already glued back on her novel rather than at him.

He blinks his eyes rapidly, snapping out of the trance he always finds himself in where she’s concerned as he pulls his backpack onto one of his shoulders then turns to run out of the café to go and change into his suit and see what he can do to help.

He changes in the alleyway a couple of blocks away from the café and bank then heads back after webbing up his backpack high up on the wall where it can’t be stolen- a lesson he learnt the hard way.

Half of the police officers seem relieved to see him when he shows up asking what he can do to help whilst the other half, the “we’re tired of these damn vigilantes and their stupid costumes taking justice into their own hands and getting in the way of good, honest police work” police officers roll their eyes and shake their heads disapprovingly at his arrival.

The officer in charge luckily falls into the former school of thought and more than gladly briefs him on what the situation is. Three bank robbers tried to rob the bank but the situation escalated when one of the tellers set off the robbery alarm and one of the robbers realised. Now they’re holed up inside with fifteen hostages, including staff and other members of the public who happened to be in the bank at the time. Robbers have dodged all attempts at negotiation, the snipers have no clear view into the bank as the robbers may be amateurs but are smart enough to stay clear of windows, and there are concerns about potential hostage casualties that would result from S.W.A.T team just going in.

Peter listens attentively as the situation is broken down to him, brain working a mile a minute to formulate a plan which he then communicates to the Police chief once he’s got most of it worked out in his head.

The chief gives him the go ahead so Peter climbs in through a lone small window high up that’s been left open which leads him into a back office in the bank that he luckily finds empty. From there he just sneaks out and sneaks through the bank to find the robbers.

He subdues them each one by one, being careful to be quiet as to not alert the other robbers of his presence within the building and also being careful to ensure no gun is fired to prevent any hostage casualty or injury. He manages to take two of them out but the third, final guy realises something is up when he radios the other guys and gets no response.

His realisation that something is up causes the guy to panic, grabbing a hostage and holding the poor woman in front of his as a human shield whilst he holds his handgun to her temple. “I’ll shoot her, I swear. I’ll fucking do it!” the guy shouts out, pitch high and voice uneven with rising panic and the desperation of a man who knows he’s at the end of the line with not many options left.

Peter slowly walks towards him, arms raised in his best sign of “I mean you no harm”. He gestures towards the door at the other hostages he walks past, silently letting them know they can all leave which they waste no time doing now that Spider-Man has let them know it’s safe for them to go.

“Hey, hey. Where are they all going? Stay where you are!” the guy shouts at the crowds making a run for it towards the door.

“Give it up buddy,” Peter huffs. “Why don’t you let that nice lady go so you avoid getting into further trouble and getting stuck with further charges, huh?” Peter asks in his best placating tone.

“Don’t come closer, stay where you are!” The guy tightens his hold on the woman and projects his voice to sound more threatening as he moves the gun from the woman and points it at Peter instead, but the hand gripping the handgun shakes unevenly.

“Buddy c’mon-”

The guy interrupts Peter, “Stop calling me that, I’m not your buddy you spider freak!”

Peter sighs slightly impatiently, hands going to rest on his waist. This is what he interrupted his date for? He decides to hell with it as he shoots out a well-aimed web at the gun to snatch it away from the guy before he can even so much as blink. “Let her go!” he demands, taking a further hesitant step towards them.

And this guy is desperate and stupid, because despite no longer having a weapon on him he stands his ground. The arm that was wrapped around the woman’s arm to hold her to him moving up to wrap around her neck. “I said stay where you are!”

“Look sir, I just wanna go back on my date with my girlfriend so please could you let this lovely lady go. You have no gun, your two friends are both lying somewhere in this bank unconscious. You’re on your own,” Peter says in an even tone, trying to stop his impatience from seeping into his tone.

There’s a beat where the robber’s eyes flit from Spider-Man to the entrance where he sees a S.W.A.T team on standby then finally he sighs defeatedly as his hold on the woman slackens before he steps back away from her, accepting his situation.

As soon as she’s out of his grasp the woman makes a beeline for the door to the waiting police.

“You did the right thing,” Peter assures the guy, and he notes the S.W.A.T team entering the building in his peripheral vision.

“This isn’t over Spider-Man,” the guy threatens, voice slightly menacing, but Peter is too distracted to properly pay attention.

“You guys got this right? Because I have a date I need to get back to,” he says before turning to leave the building without waiting for a response.

He swings back to the alleyway he left his belongings and quickly changes into his civilian clothes before walking back to the café to re-join MJ. He finds her waiting outside the entrance rather than inside on the corner table he’d left her on.

“Got bored,” she says with a shrug in answer to his questioning look before she moves off the wall she was leaning against to grab his hand.

She leads him in the direction they came from towards the nearest subway station, likely thinking they should head back home, so he tugs on her hand to stop her in her tracks.

“Hey, uh, I know that you said you’d never,” he pauses, leans closer to her so he can whisper the next part, “go for a swing again but I was thinking-”

“Peter-” she interrupts, clearly unimpressed.

“Wait, wait, hear me out,” he pleads, and he throws her one of his best endearing smiles that he used on May a lot growing up. She rolls her eyes and he takes it as his cue to continue, “I know you said never again but I had something else for our date planned that will need us to swing to this place. I promise I’ll go slow and won’t throw you around like I did the last time. And it’ll definitely be worth it.”

MJ scrutinises him for a prolonged moment and he thinks she is gonna say no, tell him she wants to go home but as always she surprises him by nervously tucking some stray strands of her behind her ear then shyly, voice barely above a whisper, telling him, “Okay, fine.”

Peter has to work incredibly hard to resist the overwhelming urge to jump up and fist pump the air victoriously, he instead just clears his throat a couple of times to play it off cool. “Okay. Cool.”

They walk hand in hand down to the alley he’d changed in before so he can change back into his suit then the two of them swing across the city to continue their date, with MJ screaming in his ear the entire time about how she let him talk her into doing this again and how she is gonna murder him once they are back on solid ground. Her threats sound 100% serious but Peter can’t help but smile at the way she is completely wrapped around him, legs wrapped over his waist and arms wrapped tightly around his neck and face pressed into his shoulder. The contact and warmth of her body is nice and distracting.

When they land on the rooftop he’d set up earlier, MJ stays wrapped around him like she did the first time and he has to quietly tell her, “MJ, we’re here.”

She hurriedly unwraps herself from around him and takes a tentative step away to put some distance between them. “I hate you,” she grumbles.

“Sorry,” he says but he knows that the smile is apparent in his voice. “But we’re here, c’mon.”

He grabs her hand to lead her to the west facing side of the roof to the blanket he’d set up. Except when they get closer, what he’d set up is not what they find. The lock on his picnic basket was a broken flimsy one, so it’s been open and their food haphazardly dug into and the picnic blankets he’d laid out are covered in bird droppings- it kind of looks like an abstract Jackson Pollock art piece.

“Dammit!” Peter swears meaningfully, looking over the ruined spread. “I’m so sorry MJ, I wanted to have a nice picnic and watch the sunset but it’s all ruined.”

He looks to MJ and she seems to be trying to contain a laugh.

“Is this funny to you?” He asks, going for annoyed but finding the way she catches her bottom lip to try and contain her laughter too adorable to really be annoyed.

“No,” she replies unconvincingly. He stares at her disbelievingly, showing that he sees right through her lie and MJ has to work harder to contain the laughter he can see brewing. She clears her throat and hurriedly steps forward towards the ruined picnic, “C’mon, let’s clean this up Romeo.”

So instead of enjoying some of the best sandwiches New York has to offer with the best person he knows whilst they watch the sunset and steal a few kisses, they spend their time clearing up the bits of food and trying to fold the blankets without touching the droppings that cover them.

Wonderful.

* * *

Two: The Home Alone Plan

Part of Peter still can’t believe that MJ is his girlfriend, that she really actually likes him. He’d half expected her to call things off once the summer ended, confirming his fears that it was just a summer fling for her and she didn’t like him as much as he did her but summer ends and they go back for their junior year and he somehow still has a girlfriend.

Not much changes at school, he still meets her by her locker in the mornings and brings her a tea, she sits in the corner the way she used to before in their lessons together rather than moving to come and sit next to him though he didn’t really expect her to do that, they sit together with Ned at lunch like they’ve always done and have decathlon practice together on Monday lunchtimes and on Wednesdays after school (he’s actually really good about going now and doesn’t ditch, and not just because the captain is his girlfriend but because he’s dedicated to decathlon and being a normal high schooler thank you very much).

The slight differences are that now, her morning tea comes with a quick peck, they will now walk through the Midtown hallways with hands held, and Peter goes to decathlon practice early to help her set up and will stay after it’s over to help her pack up then walk her home and kiss her goodbye on her front porch on Wednesdays.

Beyond that, they also squeeze in as much time as they can between the challenges of junior year including all of MJ’s 101 extra curriculars and Peter’s Spider-Man duties. That time ranging from going to cafés around the city to do their homework (they mostly go so MJ can try different teas from all over the city rather than to actually work), go on dates here and there when they’ve each saved up enough, and hang out at each other’s houses in one of their rooms either doing homework, binging some show or making out- though the latter is done quietly and carefully given that both May and MJ’s parents employ the door open rule and regularly check on the pair when they’re alone, i.e. without Ned.

That last one is a slight problem. It’s difficult for them to get some time alone, and it becomes slightly frustrating. So when MJ invites him round to her house during the week whilst they’re in school, informing him that her parents will be away at a wedding out of state for the night Peter gets very excited slash mildly panics because hello- time alone! With MJ!

He decides he’s not going to let this rare opportunity go to waste, and he wants to make the most of their night home alone so he concocts a plan for their night together.

  1. **Drop by Delmar’s and grab ingredients for a vegetarian lasagne, as well as sour gummy worms for him, Häagen-Dazs ice cream for her, and popcorn for both of them on his way to MJ’s.**
  2. **Make MJ a vegetarian lasagne for dinner that they can eat with apple juice in wine glasses to pretend they’re at a fancy restaurant on a fancy date neither of their seventeen year old selves could probably afford.**
  3. **After cleaning up their dinner (Peter envisions a rom-com like montage of him washing the dishes as MJ dries, with her stopping to tease him and blow soap bubbles at his face then he does the same in retaliation then they get distracted chasing each other around her fairly expansive kitchen…again, MJ would call him lame if he told her about this fantasy) they will then cuddle up on her couch with the snacks he’ll have bought and watch scary murder documentaries which he’d rather not watch but are MJ’s favorite so will endure just for her because he’d do anything for her.**
  4. **Over the course of their Netflix binge, he’ll play with her hair and maybe sneak a few kisses here and there to the top of her head, and to her lips in between documentaries when she’s not totally engrossed in what’s happening on the screen.**
  5. **Hopefully because of number four, MJ will be distracted enough to pause the murder documentaries (thank God!) so they can make out and hopefully do a bit more than that too- he’s secretly hoping MJ will let him do the thing he did that one time May was held up at work thereby leaving them alone in the apartment for a _very productive_ hour.**



With all the ins and outs of his plan for the night alone worked out in his head, Peter damn near skips out of the apartment for the night giving May a cheery “see you tomorrow!” and a big kiss on the cheek before he departs (she knows he’s spending the night at MJ’s, he just maybe forgot to mention the part about her parents being out of state until tomorrow afternoon).

His first stop is Delmar’s to buy the dinner ingredients and the snacks and he manages to grab everything he needs and everything is going swimmingly until he’s walking towards the cash register to pay and he notes a shifty man who walks in ahead of him to the counter, some bulky item barely concealed in his hoodie pocket.

Peter’s almost immediately senses that there’s something off about this guy and something bad is likely to happen.

And his fears are confirmed when the guy reveals the concealed item to be a very old small handgun that looks like something out of a Western.

Peter has to resist the urge to groan aloud because of course, _of course_ he’s gonna have to deal with a robbery as he’s on his way to his girlfriend’s for a rare night alone that’ll likely make him late.

But the universe must be on his side today because soon after taking out his concealed weapon and going to point it at an unassuming Mr Delmar, the guy seemingly has a change of heart and lowers the gun before mumbling out a string of half-coherent apologies. “I’m so sorry,” he says over and over again before running out of the store.

He leaves a confused Mr Delmar behind who just eyes Peter curiously then turns towards the entrance where the would-be robber has just run out then back to Peter before shrugging at the whole situation.

“The guy probably knew what a close relationship I have with Spider-Man, _eh_?” Mr Delmar says when Peter goes up to the counter with a knowing smile. Peter has never actually confirmed it but he’s 99.9999999% certain Mr Delmar knows that he’s Spider-Man; between Ned, May, MJ and Mr Delmar he’s not great at the whole secret identity thing, clearly.

Peter shakes his head bemusedly then pays for his things before leaving the store. He fishes his phone out of his pocket and sees that he hasn’t lost any time and will still make it to MJ’s for 7pm as agreed before he shoots her a quick text to let her know he’s just left Delmar’s and is on his way to hers.

MJ greets him with a kiss once he gets to her place before they move to the kitchen where he cooks whilst she sits on the counter snacking on some Hershey’s kisses as she tells him about the novel she’s just read. It’s oddly domestic- odd in the best kind of way, odd in a “I could definitely get used to this, which is odd because I’m only 17 and yet I envision this kind of future and domesticity with you” kind of way- but Peter revels in it.

Once the lasagne is in the oven, they spend their time making out with MJ propped up on the kitchen counter whilst Peter stands between her legs. Peter gets carried away, gets lost in the sense of pride that flows through him at the sounds he draws out of MJ with the drag of his lips across the skin of her jaw, of her ears and of her neck, along with getting lost in the sensations she draws out of him with her teasing, wicked lips and occasional nip of teeth.

The oven timer going off is what eventually gets them to reluctantly break apart, Peter going to get the lasagne out whilst MJ goes to set the dining table. After that they settle in seats opposite each other and dig into their lasagne and apple juice. The lasagne’s not half bad, it’s one of the recipes he’s been practising ever since an off-handed comment from May about how he’d have to be the one who cooks in their relationship when MJ had admitted to having no sort of cooking ability (she’d told a story about how she once burnt pasta…whilst simply boiling it in water…).

They don’t get to have their romcom-esque montage of doing the dishes that Peter had envisioned because MJ just shoves all the dishes in the dishwasher instead. Afterwards she drags him to the living room onto the couch where they settle cuddled up with him lying on the couch and her draped over him as they watch murder documentaries. Everything is going according to his plan.

The awkwardness and hesitation that coloured the initial stages of their relationship has mostly disappeared but Peter sometimes still gets nervous and awkward when it comes to initiating things so he has to psyche himself up to run his fingers through her hair and press kisses to the top of her head as they watch TV, as per his plan.

Her hair seems to curl more than usual today meaning it’s a little more difficult to run his fingers through it, and his fingers occasionally tug a little uncomfortably at her hair. “Ow, Peter,” MJ complains at a particularly hard tug.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” he apologises profusely, settling for running his hand over her hair rather than through it instead.

They stay like that for a stretch of time, Peter’s hand running over her hair as she focuses on the screen in front of them. She eventually breaks the silence, “Are you- are you _petting_ me?”

“What? No, _no_!” Peter huffs insistently, willing his face to not turn red in embarrassment. “I just didn’t want my fingers to get stuck in your hair and for me to pull it. I’m sorry, I’ll stop.”

“I didn’t say you should stop, loser.”

“Oh, okay,” Peter sighs in relief before resuming his previous actions.

They get through about ten to fifteen minutes of the documentary, with his hand running over her hair and head leaning down to press the occasional kiss to the top of her head.

MJ for her part seems uncomfortable, constantly shifting position over him until she impatiently huffs and gets up off him to reach for the remote and pause the show and turn the TV off. “That’s enough of that,” she declares before moving back to lie on him and to kiss him hungrily.

They’ve been together for coming onto nine months now, but kissing MJ still takes Peter’s breath away. It still feels as new and as exciting as the first adrenaline-filled kiss they shared in London after he defeated Mysterio.

He sinks into the feeling of the softness of her lips which move insistently against his, and her hands which sneak beneath the hem of his hoodie and run over the front of his t-shirt. He gets so into it that he switches their positions, moving MJ so she’s now beneath him and he’s above her, nestling himself in the space her legs automatically make for him and for him alone.

“Take this off,” MJ whines impatiently, tugging at his hoodie.

He laughs at her small pout as he sits up briefly to pull the offending item of clothing over his head before draping it over the back of the couch. As he does so, he accidentally makes eye contact with MJ’s grandparents- well, with the photograph of them that sits directly in his eyeline- which makes him slightly uneasy so he lies back down to go back to making out.

They resume where they left off, and he gets lost in it all again until the need for oxygen has them pulling apart. He moves away to start kissing a path along her throat except this time he makes eye contact with a picture of MJ’s father on the mantelpiece who seems to be watching him.

“Can we, uh, can we go to your room?” he breaths out through the fog of lust, feeling uneasy at the feeling of MJ’s family somehow watching them make out.

MJ starts to hike up the hem of his t-shirt, clearly not having heard his request so he puts his hands over hers to stop her and tries again, “MJ, can we go to your room? _Please_?”

She grumbles wordlessly but dutifully gets up and drags him to her room where she pushes him onto the bed before climbing after him to carry on where they left off.

Peter lies back, gladly letting MJ take the reins and looking up to watch her as she reaches up to take off her top so she’s just in her bra which causes his breath to hitch because his girlfriend is breath-taking, she literally takes his breath away.

As he’s watching her his mind wanders slightly, thinking about how perfectly the night has gone, and how perfectly his and MJ’s relationship is going. With all the shit in his life, all the shit he’s been through, his relationship with MJ is still unbelievable because of how perfect it is, how easy it is in comparison to other aspects of his life. It doesn’t feel real at times.

And because anxiety can sometimes rear its ugly head at the most inopportune, irrational times, Peter suddenly seizes, going still as a paralysing fear overcomes him.

Being with MJ is perfect, _too perfect_. It doesn’t feel real sometimes, like now. Images of the realistic illusions and images Mysterio was able to cast, to trick him with last summer flash in his mind. This could all be fake his brain screams at him.

Rationally he knows that Mysterio is dead, was killed by a bullet Mysterio himself had fired from one of his drones that accidentally hit him instead of its intended target, Peter. Peter knows that realistically, the likelihood of Mysterio coming up with a vivid illusion involving two teenagers making out and almost crossing into second base is… _highly unlikely_. But like he said, anxiety isn’t wholly rational. Anxiety doesn’t always appear- causing a spike in your heart rate, your chest to constrict and your palms to sweat- at times where it makes sense.

And just like that Peter freezes beneath MJ, being transported away from her bedroom and back to Berlin, except the things he’d seen in Berlin are now warped and twisted, updated with more recent nightmares he’s had ever since him and MJ got together.

Peter isn’t entirely aware of himself for a while. When he eventually comes to, he’s no longer lying beneath his topless girlfriend but is now lying in bed, head resting on her (now clothed) chest as she cradles him to her telling him that he’s okay, that Mysterio can’t hurt him anymore and to focus on her heartbeat and realise that this is real, that _she’s_ real.

His girlfriend holding him and talking him down from a panic attack is not how he envisioned their Friday night home alone going. This wasn’t part of the plan.

* * *

Three: The Moving In Together Plan

It’s astounding really, that the easiness of his relationship with MJ that’s been present since they first got together the summer before their junior year persists throughout the rest of high school, then carries over when they head to college- her to Columbia to study Journalism and him to Empire State to study Engineering.

College is a whirlwind of meeting new people, new experiences and trying to gain independence and figure yourself out but the one constant for them is each other. Their relationship is steady, a solid foundation beneath their feet even with the shifting world around them.

By their senior year, though Peter shares an apartment with Ned and MJ with her friend Gwen whom she met in her freshmen year- both in off-campus apartments they rent- Peter and MJ basically live together.

Peter has not one, but two (out of six) drawers for his stuff in MJ’s room, and has a toothbrush in her bathroom. He also keeps a spare red and blue suit that’s reminiscent of his old one Stark had built him all those years ago in a secure box beneath her bed, just in case of emergency.

Gwen likes to joke about how Peter should just start contributing to their rent and bills at this point since he’s like a third roommate and they all laugh it off.

But then Peter gets to thinking.

Him and MJ only have a few months left of college and consequently of the leases on their respective apartments. They’ve basically been living together already for the past year so what’s to stop them just making their co-habitation official?

It makes sense that they just move in together after graduating, the timing feels right. And he knows this is a huge moment in their relationship, May had told him living with someone is a major step in a relationship because you get to see them as they truly are. Additionally, the romcoms he watched with May growing up had shown the male protagonist making a big show of asking the female protagonist to move in with him, so this feels like something that requires some thought. Something that requires a plan of some sort and so he comes up with a plan…of sorts.

  1. **Start casually mentioning how both of their leases will be up soon, along with talking about the future and what he (and she) is gonna do once that happens into conversations to implant the idea about their housing situation in MJ’s head.**
  2. **Tell MJ that May is looking for a new place but because of work (he may need to work on this flimsy excuse) is too busy to go to viewings herself and has asked him to go on her behalf so, convince MJ to come with him to view the places since she would know better than he would what things to look for in a good apartment.**
  3. **Go to view apartments with her (hope she doesn’t notice how all the places they view are small one beds rather than the two beds May would look for if she were looking for a new place- if MJ does question it, tell her something about him being a grown up and May no longer needing the second bedroom to accommodate him anymore) and when they see one she really likes reveal to her that he made up the whole May looking for a new place thing and the apartments they’ve been looking at are actually for them and so…would she maybe like to move in with him?**
  4. **MJ hopefully says yes so they sign the lease and pay the security deposit then move in together when their current leases end (sorry Gwen, she’ll figure something out for herself he hopes).**
  5. **Make a home together in this apartment- clothes hanging side by side in their little shitty IKEA wardrobe that could collapse at any moment because they didn’t follow the instructions properly when putting it together, walls adorned with all of her drawings and paintings that he’s gonna get especially framed and all their stuff mixed in together everywhere; evidence of a life shared together.**
  6. **~~~~~~Move out of the small apartment and move to something bigger if they eventually want to start a family~~**



As per his plan, about 3 months prior to the end of college and the end of their current leases he starts slyly- as slyly as someone with no tact like Peter can manage- mentioning how they’re coming to the end of an era in their lives with their college graduations fast approaching.

He initially starts by talking about the end of college, with a “ _isn’t it crazy that we graduate college soon?_ ” here, a “ _it feels like yesterday we were graduating high school, doesn’t it?_ ” there, and a “ _we’re gonna have to enter the working world soon, be real adults rather than this weird in between of being a college student_ ” there.

MJ usually ignores him, wordlessly humming to acknowledge that she heard him whilst her focus is on the essay she’s writing for a class, or on the new blog post for her Spider-Man blog she’s been running since their sophomore year of college (she claimed it was to practice writing news stories and learn about gaining readership to prepare her for a career as a journalist…he likes teasing her about being obsessed with him regardless though) or on literally anything else because she finds him ridiculous 95% of the time.

From there he slowly introduces the idea of their leases coming to an end, and peppers in titbits about how he hasn’t even thought about what he’s gonna do at that point to get MJ thinking about her own lease ending and what she’s gonna do once it ends in hopes that he implants the idea of the two of them maybe potentially moving in together in her head so she’s not blindsided when he does surprise her by asking. It sounds dumb when he goes through this part of the plan but it’s fine. The plan _will_ work.

Except, when he mentions the idea of their leases ending and how he has no idea what he’s gonna do when that happens MJ doesn’t think along the lines of the two of them moving in together. She instead takes the several hints he’s been dropping to mean him and Ned need help looking for a new place because they’re “useless at this whole adult thing” according to her (and Betty…and May…and Ned’s parents) but luckily, he has the best girlfriend in the world who’ll take it upon herself to find apartments and arrange viewings and will even come with them since she’ll know the types of questions to ask and so on.

So Peter finds himself going to viewings for apartments with MJ, except the apartments aren’t one beds for him and MJ as he had planned but are two beds for him and Ned. Never mind the fact that Peter is almost certain that Ned intends to get a place with Betty when their lease is up, but he decides to go along with this- it’s a slight set back and diversion from his original plan but he can use these apartment viewings to get an idea of the kind of things MJ looks for and likes in apartments. It’s fine, the plan is still the plan.

However, once they get to doing the various viewings MJ arranged for them to do- just the two of them because Ned is busy with his finals- the real estate agent who goes with them to view all these apartments turns out to be one _Brad Davis_.

High school was nearly four years ago and MJ is his girlfriend so really it’s not an issue, Peter is mature and is not still jealous of Brad after all these years. The problem is that Brad spends all the viewings flirting with MJ and reminiscing about high school, which- dude get a grip, that was four years ago. And when Brad reminisces about high school he only mentions Debate club, Book club and Model UN- all clubs that MJ and Brad used to have together but Peter was conveniently not part of meaning he’s effectively shut out of their conversations.

All of their viewings go on like this, Brad telling a funny story from high school that only MJ would be privy to then the two of them talking amongst themselves and breaking out into fits of near-hysterical laughter where they can’t get their words out between the wheezes.

And Peter gets upset, not because he’s jealous- he trusts MJ and knows there is nothing there- but because Brad seems to be an obstacle to his plan that he can’t overcome. He was able to find the silver lining in this finding an apartment for “him and Ned” plan alteration but he can’t find a way to do away with Brad without looking like a jealous asshole.

So he just hangs back behind the giggling pair who chat animatedly amongst themselves and watches on almost sadly as he trails behind them. MJ is more focused on all hers and Brad’s jokes and isn’t fully focused on the apartment hunt and he’s getting zero intel about the kind of things she likes and looks for in an apartment the way he’d hoped.

So far he’d say the plan might be a failure.

By the end of the three day period where they view a good fourteen apartments he finally relents that the plan was definitively a failure considering he got no information about MJ’s preferences that could be of any use to him because she was so distracted catching up with Brad. Part of him admits that maybe she wasn’t the one distracted by Brad, and that maybe he was distracted by his former classmate so much so that he didn’t pay as much attention as he should have to gleam MJ’s likes.

Either way, he concludes the Moving In Plan was likely a complete and utter failure. Maybe he should stop with the elaborate MJ-centric plans. _Maybe_.

MJ, ever the observant and thoughtful person she is, notices the way he’s sulking at the failure of his plan a few days after the viewings and confronts him about it instantly.

“What’s the matter with you?” she asks him as they’re cuddled up in her bed watching a documentary on her laptop. They’re wearing matching robes she’d bought for them a few months back and the sight they make feels like the knife being driven further into his heart because he wants this domesticity on a permanent basis.

“Huh, what? Nothing, nothing’s the matter with me,” he replies unconvincingly.

She sits up from where she was cuddled into his side so she can look down at him and narrows her eyes at him. “That was really convincing, good job,” she deadpans.

“Just thinking about stuff.”

“Is stuff the apartment viewings with Brad?” she asks to which he hums in reply. “Well don’t worry, we can keep looking. I’m sure we’ll find something for you and Ned.”

At that last part he sighs wistfully, “Sure.”

“What’s wrong? Do you not want me to help you find a new place?”

“No, no, that’s not it,” he says, voice barely above a whisper.

And MJ has never been one to let things go, always being determined to get to the bottom of something especially if that something was something bothering him or weighing on him. “Then what?”

Peter takes a deep breath in then exhales audibly, considering his words. “Ned’s probably gonna move in with Betty after our lease is up, I think.”

“Oh so what are you gonna do?” MJ asks curiously.

“I-” he goes to respond but something in her tone makes him pause, looking closely at her. “You already knew that,” it’s not a question.

“Yep.”

“Right.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that from the start?” she asks, voice quiet and slightly shy.

“I- I don’t know. I had this plan, right: I was gonna take us to view a bunch of one bed apartments then hopefully find one you fell in love with and gushed about then I’d be all “if you love this apartment so much how would you feel about moving into it...with me?” and it was gonna be this romantic gesture and you’d be swept off your feet by your amazingly thoughtful boyfriend,” Peter explains, trying to resist the urge to pout at how horribly his plan failed.

MJ watches him for a prolonged moment, expression unreadable then eventually she breaks out into a large grin. “Why didn’t you just ask me to move in with you like a normal person three months ago when you started dropping hints about us graduating into conversations?”

Peter snorts, of course she noticed he was doing that. He’s so dumb for thinking his amazingly observant and intelligent girlfriend wouldn’t catch on to what he was trying to do instantly. “I like coming up with these elaborate things that take effort and planning because I like surprising you and putting effort into us, into _you_.”

“Lame,” MJ teases as she leans down to press a lingering kiss against his lips.

The kiss deepens into languid exploration and Peter is hyper-aware of the soft press of her chest that’s naked beneath the robe against the hard planes of his own, and gets lost in the sensations of it all, gets lost in her so easily that he almost forgets what they were even talking about until MJ pulls away to speak. “Next time, just ask me.”

“Okay,” he agrees, head leaning up to resume their kiss as the back of his hand comes up to run along the sliver of soft skin exposed at the neckline of her robe.

Frustratingly, MJ pulls away from their kiss just as things are getting interesting and he releases a small whine of protest before he can stop himself which she smirks at but otherwise doesn’t comment on. Instead she says, “Well… _ask me_.”

It takes a moment for Peter to process what she’s saying before his mind registers it and catches up to her words. “Oh, um, MJ, do you wanna get an apartment and move in together after we graduate?”

She squints her eyes at him as she seems to mull over the question for a beat…then another…and another…and Peter starts to sweat slightly before she eventually puts him out of his misery. “I’m just messing with you. Yes, I’ll move in with you.”

He breaks out into a beaming grin automatically at hearing the words he’s wanted to hear for so long and MJ laughs at his enthusiastic response but she also wears a matching grin as she leans down to kiss him.

The plan went disastrously but he got the desired end-result so all in all, not bad.

* * *

Four: The Birthday Plan

MJ is generally not the type of person who likes to make a huge deal out of her birthday. The birthdays he’s spent with her since they got together have been spent binge watching ‘The Get Down’ (her favorite show, may it rest in peace), then later on in the relationship there was also the addition of birthday sex. For important birthdays- namely, her 18th and 21st\- her parents also made her go out for large family dinners to celebrate, but other than that MJ prefers her birthdays to be lowkey things. And while Peter is the opposite, wanting to spoil her and make a big deal out of her birthday he’s respected her wishes to keep it lowkey time and time again.

This year however, her 25th birthday falls just a week after her commencing her dream job at the New York Times so Peter feels like this year should be an exception to her “keep birthdays lowkey” rule. He manages to convince her of this, to convince her that this year they should do something more than the usual birthday routine to celebrate both of these momentous occasions and with persuasive words and kisses and other favours, he’s able to get her to let him plan out an evening filled with birthday celebrations for her. Only an evening, not the full day like he’d have liked but he’ll take what he can get.

So he comes up with a plan for how they’ll spend their evening.

  1. **Meet MJ at her favorite food truck that’s located a few blocks from her work building where they’ll get burritos for an (early) dinner to start off their night of celebrations.**
  2. **Head to the Dead Apple murder tour MJ has been trying to get him to go on with her since they were in high school but he always refused (because “murder tours are a little weird and exploitative MJ, don’t you think?” and _definitely_ not because he was scared…absolutely not because of that).**
  3. **At the end of their tour go to an ice cream parlour that’s on the way back to their apartment and get a single milkshake they can share with two straws (MJ allows Peter one gross display of PDA per month and he hasn’t used it up this month so, shared milkshake it is) then they’ll have ice cream sundaes (for this they have to get one each and they don’t share it because MJ does not share ice cream)**
  4. **Head back to the apartment and watch MJ’s favorite episode of ‘The Get Down’ (episode 6, obviously) followed by birthday sex because some traditions are important and should be preserved as best as possible**
  5. **Sleep, because they’re now working adults who need to ensure they get enough sleep since they’ll both have work the following morning**



On the morning of MJ’s birthday, the two of them oversleep and wake up late meaning the morning is spent taking turns in the bathroom and rushing to get ready for work and he only manages a quick mumble of “happy birthday” against her lips as he pecks her goodbye before they go their separate ways. But it’s okay because the morning wasn’t part of his designated birthday time anyway.

The workday drags as he impatiently waits for it to be 5:30pm so he can head out to go and meet MJ. And it’s just his sheer dumb luck that a workday that hasn’t been all that busy where time has dragged ends up getting really unusually busy when the clock is nearing 5:30pm and by the time everything is under control and he can leave, it’s 6:15pm.

He shoots off a quick apology text to MJ as he’s leaving to let her know he’s on his way to their favorite food truck and will meet her there in ten minutes.

He gets there in five minutes after having run all the way there, expecting to find her sitting near the food truck eating her own burrito having been to impatient and hungry to wait the extra time for him.

Instead what he finds are a couple of police officers gathered around the area, going around and seemingly interviewing people. Peter scans the crowd to find MJ but has no luck so he goes to the main square area where there are food trucks and crowds leaving work from the nearby buildings to walk around and see if he can find her that way.

Mild panic starts to rise within him after he’s walked around the perimeter of the square one, two, three times with no sign of MJ. He doesn’t want to assume the worst but he has a bad feeling, which coupled with the increasing police presence- another squad car has now joined the one that was here when he first he got here- does nothing to calm his nerves.

He goes up to a police officer to ask him what’s going on, and they’re initially dismissive, first asking him if he was around to witness what happened then telling him that they can’t discuss official business when he tells them that no, he’s just got here.

But Peter is having none of it, he fishes his phone out and opens one of the many photos of MJ he has saved on his phone to show to the officer, “Look officer, this is my girlfriend. I can’t find her and we were meant to meet here.”

The police officer opens his mouth, likely about to dismiss him again, but freezes with his mouth still hanging open as a flare of recognition crosses his face when he looks at the photo. “Sir, did you say this was your girlfriend?”

The mild panic boils to a full blown panic.

“Yeah, what’s going on? Is all this about her?”

The officer goes onto explain that they were reports of her being taken by two men in a black van at around 6:15pm, a mere few minutes right before he got here. He just missed them, just missed her. They question him some, a few questions to rule him out as a suspect and a few about MJ and whether she has enemies and whether he has any idea who might have done this and he has plenty of ideas, all of them related to his alter-ego mostly but he can’t say that to the police officer so he just shakes his head no then once he confirms they’re done questioning him excuses himself using the excuse of his job at Stark Industries maybe enabling him to try other avenues to locate her.

The officer gives him a card to contact them on if he finds anything and reassures him they will contact him if they find something, then Peter runs off going to suit up so he can track her down.

His adrenaline fuels him as he searches for her all over the city for hours. He’s had Karen attempt to track her phone or at the very least triangulate her last known location to no avail, then he’s currently having Karen search through all possible surveillance at the square and around the area and on the roads leaving the area in search of the van matching the description police had been given or the men in all black described by several witnesses.

After much searching and panicking, Karen finally gets a hit on the van. Through surveillance tracking they find that the people who took MJ drove the van to a one warehouse where they swapped to another vehicle before carrying on in that to another warehouse that he’s easily able to identify then he heads there, the adrenalin that’s been fuelling him prior to now multiplied exponentially as he swings there as fast as he can.

Gone is the usual patience with which he’d stake out a place to figure out what he’s going into first when he gets to the warehouse, his rage blinds him, leading him to go into the warehouse as soon as he gets there. Fortunately for him the two men that took her turn out to be the only ones there with her; they have one handgun between them and MJ is tied to an old chair that looks like it may have been fished out of the trash with duct tape- clearly this was not a well thought out or planned out job.

He knocks out one of the two men, the one without the gun, with relative ease leaving him face to face with the remaining guy who is quick to cut MJ out of her restraints then drag her off the chair to hold her against him as a human shield with the gun pointed at her temples.

The scene is familiar and so stereotypical.

“I told you this wasn’t over Spider-Man,” the man snarls with familiarity.

For Peter it takes him a second to register who the man is and what his words mean before recognition dawns on him . The man is the one from the bank robbery all those years ago from his first official date with MJ. _Jesus_.

“I’m not following,” Peter plays dumb.

“You got me locked up for 8 years now I want revenge and I found out about your little girlfriend here,” he roughly pokes at her head with the gun and it takes everything in Peter to not just lunge at the guy and end him then and there.

“Let her go now and you won’t have to go back to prison for a really, _really_ long time,” Peter tells the man, half-heartedly trying to negotiate with him. Part of him wants the sleazebag to make this difficult, to give him an excuse to kick his ass. “And I’ll go easy on you, too.”

“Listen here you asshole, you’re not the one doing the negotiating h-” The kidnapper doesn’t get a chance to finish his sentiment as Peter hastily snatches his gun away from him and webs high up on the nearby wall, out of reach.

“Duck!” he screams at MJ who does as he says, allowing him to drop kick the asshole with a little more force than necessary which knocks him out cold. Peter makes quick work of webbing the guy’s wrists and ankles up to keep him subdued, until the police- whom he instructs Karen to contact- come and arrest him and thing 2.

Once he’s satisfied he’s taken care of everything he pulls his mask off and goes to MJ who throws herself into his open arms with the same desperation he similarly feels.

“Are you okay? Are you injured? Did they hurt you?” Peter fires off the questions in quick succession without giving her a chance to even respond as he pulls away from their hug to run his gloved fingers over her face to check her over. She has a nasty gash above her right eyebrow along with a cut on her lip but otherwise she seems okay, maybe slightly shaken, but _okay_.

With great care and a delicacy that doesn’t match his hammering heart and his frantic, panicked thoughts, he pushes the hairs that had escaped her low ponytail away from her face and moves his hands to rest on her chin to frame her face. “Are you okay?” he breathes out, tone much calmer now as the adrenaline that was pumping in his veins has started to dissipate.

She gives him a small reassuring smile, “I’m okay, I promise.” She leans forward to give him a brief, too-chaste peck to punctuate her words.

He looks at her searchingly, looking for confirmation that she’s really okay.

MJ seems to know what he’s looking for. “I promise I’m okay. These guys were worse than amateurs,” she says jokingly to try and reassure him.

“We should go home,” he says after a moment, grabbing her hand in hers so they can leave this grim warehouse.

As they’re making their way out of the building MJ interlocks the fingers to hold his hand tighter in hers. “It’s been a while since I’d been kidnapped, huh?” she teases.

“Don’t joke about that. That’s not funny,” Peter tries to be serious but a smile threatens to break out. He loves and hates how blasé MJ is about things sometimes.

“Too soon?” she asks with a bemused lilt to her voice.

He just shakes his head exasperatedly at her as he goes to place his hands on the backs of her thighs to pick her up. MJ’s arms automatically come up to wrap tightly around his neck in a dance they’ve perfected over the years the few times she’s let him swing her around. Once he feels like he has a good grip on her he shoots a web out then they swing back to their little Queens apartment. To _home_.

When they get home they share a hot shower together to wash away the toll of the day. Their apartment shower is far too small for two people, and this is not something they do usually but they don’t really want to be apart so they make it work taking turns under the stream.

Once they’re done they both change into their pajamas and wear their matching robes then head to their bedroom where Peter fishes out the medical kit they have- though it’s usually used on him rather than MJ- to take care of the gash over her eyebrow.

She only needs a few stitches over it but MJ makes it difficult, constantly squirming and moving around the entire time he’s stitching her up. “MJ, what do you always say to me when you stich me up?”

She makes a non-committal humming sound, refusing to acknowledge her own words.

“ _This will take longer if you don’t relax and stay still_ ,” he helpfully supplies for her. Part of him would be revelling in getting to be the one chastising her for not staying still the way she always does to him when she stitches him up if he weren’t still so scared and worried about her.

“Fuck off,” MJ responds with a petulant pout, causing him to snort in response.

“There,” he says once he finishes up before shuffling off the bed to put everything away.

Once he’s done he fills a glass up with water and grabs a bottle of painkillers and brings them with him into their bedroom where he finds MJ already curled up underneath the blankets, having shed her robe which is on the hook behind their bedroom door. He places the water and painkillers on her nightstand before going back to hang his own robe next to MJ’s before he comes back to join her in bed.

Once he’s comfortably sat under the covers he reaches for his laptop on the nightstand then starts up episode six of ‘The Get Down’ before setting the laptop on his lap as MJ scoots across the bed to come and drape over his side, head nestled into the crook of his neck.

They watch the episode in relative silence for a while, MJ’s whole body wrapped around Peter and clutching to him whilst Peter has an arm wrapped around her shoulder (said arm is starting to fall asleep from MJ’s weight resting on it, but he doesn’t really mind) as his hand carefully runs through her hair.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Peter asks, voice barely above a whisper, not wanting to interrupt the comfortable silence they’d settled into but needing some reassurance.

MJ exhales audibly, face further burrowing into his neck. “Yeah I’m okay, just a little annoyed I got turned into a damsel in distress on my birthday of all days,” she says keeping her volume equally low. Her face is buried so closely in his neck that he feels the puffs of air she exhales as she speaks and he can almost feel her lips moving against the skin of his neck.

He continues running his fingers through her hair soothingly, briefly leaning his head down to press a kiss to the top of her head. “Yeah. I know,” he sighs.

This wasn’t the way he’d planned for her to spend her birthday.

* * *

Five: The Proposal Plan

The week after he’d graduated from ESU, when the lease on his apartment with Ned had ended but his new one for the place with MJ hadn’t officially started yet leaving him between homes and having to move back in with his aunt, May had sat Peter down and had a serious conversation with him about the future of his and MJ’s relationship now that the two of them were officially graduating and entering the adult world. The conversation had concluded with May passing on her engagement ring that Ben had given to her to Peter, saying something about how he’d “likely need this one day not too far from now”.

That was nearly five years ago now, and since then the box has been burning a hole in the back corner of his bedside drawer that he dumps a random assortment of items in- mainly his old electronics he doesn’t want to part with in case he needs them for parts later- the one MJ never bothers to look through because looking at the mess of it gives her a headache, or so she says, thereby making it the perfect place to hide the ring.

If Peter had had his way, he’d have asked MJ to marry him when they were 17. He remembers the exact day he first got the urge to ask her to marry him: he, Ned and MJ were all collectively hanging out in his room with him and Ned working on building a Lego death star model whilst MJ was lying across his bottom bunk scrolling through her phone with her feet propped up on the ladder rungs leading to the top bunk.

Streaks of the golden sun were peaking into his room where his curtains hadn’t been closed properly, and they hit MJ’s face making her skin look particularly dewy and her eyes almost glimmer in the sunlight the way he’d first noticed they did back on that bridge in London and had gotten the privilege of witnessing anytime he was lucky to be with her during golden hour. The resultant effect was a haloing light being cast over her face that was so breathtakingly distracting that he’d stopped working on the Lego death star and just watched her, too mesmerised to do anything else.

As he was watching her she stumbled upon something funny as she snorted quietly at whatever she was watching then breathed out, “Ha! He fell.”

It wasn’t much, barely significant as far as significant moments go but watching her at the time he’d decided he wanted to watch the way her eyes shimmered in the sunlight till the day he died. The most certain he’d ever been about anything in all his 17 years of life at the time (and still to this day at 26 years old).

He’d been broken out of his MJ-induced haze by MJ herself, “Loser, did you hear me?”

“Huh? Sorry, what’s up?” He’d asked, hurriedly clearing his throat and schooling his features into a neutral expression to prevent MJ from somehow reading him and seeing his realisation spelled out on his face.

“I said could you close the curtain properly? The sun is blinding me,” she asked.

Peter scrambled off the floor, “Right. Yeah, sure.” Except in his haste to get up to close the curtain for her he’d accidentally kicked the work-in-progress death star, destroying all the work they’d done thus far and causing protests to erupt from Ned all the while MJ just quietly laughed at them.

The memory is imprinted in his mind, he remembers it so vividly but despite his overwhelming urge to marry MJ he’d held off because they were 17 and that would have been dumb. He’d continued to hold off throughout college because getting married in college seemed slightly less, but still very dumb. Then after May had given him her old engagement ring, he’d waited for the time to be right.

Years of a life shared together, along with multiple serious conversations with MJ about marriage to ensure they were on the same page, later and he decided that he was ready to do what he’d wanted to do since he was 17. And because he’s Peter Parker who overthinks things and is a little too fond of elaborate plans, it’s only right that he come up with another MJ plan because something as important as asking the love of your life to (officially) spend the rest of their life with you feels like the type of significant event that requires advanced, in-depth planning.

  1. **Finally go to Paris with MJ (to make up for the missed opportunity back over the summer before their junior year of high school) for their anniversary- except the trip would occur a whole month before their actual anniversary so as to not rouse suspicion about his plans and also because much like with birthdays, MJ doesn’t like making a huge deal out of anniversaries so would have objected to him planning an elaborate European trip specifically for the occasion.**
  2. **Once in Paris take her up to the top of the Eiffel tower the way he’d intended to all those years ago and there at the top give her the ring May gave him before that he’s since taken the liberty of having resized to fit MJ as well getting a new custom ring box for it that has a black Dahlia on it both because it’s her favorite flower (because of the murder) and because he thinks it’ll be a nice call back of sorts to the beginnings of their relationship with the broken necklace that she doesn’t constantly wear anymore (because he’s since gifted her with other unbroken jewellery) but still keeps in a special drawer of her jewellery box.**
  3. **Hopefully she says yes (he hopes he hasn’t misinterpreted all the conversations they’ve had over the years and she definitely is for marriage (“as long as it’s to you, then sure” she’d told him) and he won’t be springing this on her unexpectedly) then they kiss, all cheesy and romcom-like.**
  4. **They go back to their hotel room and order room service and celebrate their engagement, then they spend the next few days seeing all the sights of Paris, and most importantly going to all the amazing art museums MJ has always dreamed of visiting since they were teenagers**
  5. **Fly back home (as fiancées!) and go back to their daily lives with their jobs, and their shitty but amazing little apartment, volunteering at the local soup kitchen for her and patrols for him…then maybe nine months or so down the line, officially get married but that’s another plan in itself.**



After proposing (heh!) the idea of a long-overdue trip to Paris to MJ and her agreeing that it’s a good idea, they set off for Paris exactly six weeks before their anniversary- to not rouse suspicion and all.

They have issues with their travel- delays, flight cancellations etc.- which mean they land several hours later than they were originally meant to, a little too close to when Peter wanted to head to the Eiffel tower for comfort but he also doesn’t want to let slip the urgency with which they need to get to the Eiffel Tower to MJ otherwise she’d figure out that he’s up to something. So when she tells him she needs a shower first, he has to reluctantly agree.

Whilst she’s in the shower he busies himself with first changing out of his plane clothes into nice slacks and a white shirt, then putting her phone on charge so she doesn’t insist they stay at the hotel longer whilst her phone charges. He also unpacks a few things he knows she’ll need once she’s done showering- her favorite lotion, deodorant, perfume, and the bit of makeup she brought over with her- and lays it out on the hotel desk for her.

After that he tries to relax and sit on their bed waiting but becomes restless and impatient, with MJ seeming to take a shower that’s longer than she usually does, so he leaves their room to go and book a taxi for them at the front desk. They’re on a very tight schedule here.

Once the nice gentleman at the front desk who Peter is almost certain was flirting with him, though that could just be the way French people come across to his ignorant American self, helps him with booking a taxi Peter heads back to their room. He hopes that MJ is nearly done.

Instead of being met by a dressed and ready-to-go MJ, Peter is greeted by Nick Fury casually perched in the chair in the corner of the hotel room sitting in the now dark room in a way that’s reminiscent of how he’d approached him years ago in Venice, in a hotel much less nice than this one. At the back of his head he notes the sound of the shower still running in the bathroom.

“Peter Parker,” the older man says simply in greeting, tone even in a way that still instils fear in Peter even now as a grown adult.

Peter clears his throats to clear the sudden lump that’s formed around his throat. “M-Mr Fury, sir.” And he has to resist the urge to reach a hand up to salute the man. _Stupid_.

Fury watches him intently for a brief second that feels longer than that, and under the scrutiny of Fury’s gaze, Peter has a moment of panic. “I didn’t- um, you didn’t call me before, _right_?”

“No, I was already in Paris and heard you got here today so thought I’d pay you a visit.”

Peter lets out a single nervous huff of what’s meant to be laughter. “Uh, what can I do for you Mr Fury?”

“You busy?”

“Um,” Peter’s gaze drifts to the bathroom door and his fingers graze over the jewellery box in his pocket as he considers saying no before realising that Fury wouldn’t have come to see him if it wasn’t important superhero business. “No, no I’m not. Let me just grab my suit,” he says as he moves to open the secret compartment of his suitcase where his suit was stored to shove it into his backpack instead. He writes a quick note to MJ before following Fury out of the hotel.

Fury leads him to a deserted office building S.H.I.E.L.D. have set up shop at where they brief him on a notorious thief, a Felicia Hardy, who S.H.I.E.L.D. have been tracking across the world for the past month. Peter almost wants to ask why the agency is bothering itself with a thief but he skim reads her file and sees something about her potentially being enhanced and suddenly it all makes sense- they want to recruit her.

He agrees to help them out with the operation to finally apprehend her tonight when she tries to rob the Louvre per their intel, though he knows agreeing to this means he can kiss goodbye to his proposal plans for the night.

Most of his night is spent perched on a nearby roof, keeping watch for any sign of the white-haired thief and he spends hours watching and waiting. He starts to think maybe their source may have gotten it wrong and is getting ready to call it over the comms when the hairs on the back of his neck stands up, his spider-sense going haywire.

He barely has time to dodge the well-aimed roundhouse kick originating from behind him. He’s standing up straight to face the threat properly when another kick is aimed at him, he manages to block the kick, grabbing the ankle mid-air to stop his attacker. It’s then that he notes the white hair and black mask that goes over her eyes- _Felicia Hardy_.

Peter doesn’t have time to wonder about how she managed to get this close to him without setting off his spider-sense as she leans her weight onto the leg he’s holding, using it to launch herself up to knee him in the face.

The force of the impact sends them both toppling over the edge of the roof and he lands on the ground in a painful heap, with Felicia using his body to protect herself from the impact of hitting the ground.

Peter moves a hand up to clutch at his chest, the air being knocked out of his lungs when he collides with the ground. And as he’s taking time to get himself together that Felicia jumps up onto her feet readying herself to make her escape.

Slowly, and very painfully Peter shoots out a web that hooks onto her ankle thereby sending her toppling over in order to stop her escape. She lands on the ground with a loud thud and a wince when the hands she puts out to break her fall hit concrete.

Peter gets himself up onto his feet as Felicia writhes around on the ground trying to recover from her unexpected fall.

“Just surrender to S.H.I.E.L.D,” he tries to negotiate with her. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Well, that’s too bad,” she huffs before heaving herself off the ground and hitting him square in his shoulder with a right hook.

Peter exhales realising this is going to be much harder than he’d anticipated since he’d figured she was just a thief and not the trained fighter she proves herself to be. Her fighting style is much more sophisticated than Peter’s, clearly having trained in various fighting styles which she now combines as she aims punches, kicks and jabs at Peter which he mostly manages to dodge thanks to his enhanced reflexes but she does get a few hits in and she’s adept at making sure each hit causes maximal damage so when she does hit him she really hurts him; he’s bleeding at various points and already has bruises blooming from her hits.

Peter isn’t a formally trained fighter like her so he fights with less finesse and precision but what he lacks in training he makes up for with his super strength and reflexes, meaning their fight is a well matched one that goes on and on.

In the end what gives Peter the edge are his webs, which he doesn’t get the chance to use much during the fight because Felicia quickly figures out they give him an edge and so does her best to stop him activating his web shooters. When he manages to get an opening he makes effective use of his various web shooter combos.

Eventually he’s able to subdue her though she puts up a good fight, he has multiple cuts and bruises and now has to walk with a limp, to prove how much of a fight she puts up. Only once he has her webbed up do the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents show up to take her away… _typical_.

Peter is debriefed then he heads back to the hotel, the clock on his phone reading nearly 2am at this point. So much for the Eiffel Tower and the whole proposal thing.

He stumbles into their hotel room, barely able to stay up on his feet, to find MJ curled up on the bed in one of the fluffy hotel robes reading a novel as her eyes slowly blink closed- a clear sign that she’s sleepy but still stayed up for him anyway.

When she notices him she jolts awake and is suddenly on her feet coming to close the door behind him and put an arm around his waist to support him and guide him to sit on the bed. As soon as the backs of his knees collide with the mattress, Peter collapses onto his back and lies down on the bed as he takes a moment to take a breath, though even that is painful given the hits he took to his ribs.

“No Peter, sit up please,” MJ chastises though she sounds half-distracted.

He does as she says and looks across the room to where she’s stood by the wardrobe getting something out. He sees the unfamiliar first aid kit, along with a few extra things that wouldn’t have come in the kit she gathers up and piles up in her hands to bring back to the bed. “Where’d you get all that?” he asks curiously.

“I went to a pharmacy whilst you were out. Figured you’d need all this when I saw your note,” she explains, making Peter smile at how she always thinks and plans ahead (to greater success than him).

“I love you,” he tells her, looking up at her with a dopey grin.

She bites her lip to stop from smiling. “You haven’t even had any painkillers to make you loopy, relax,” she teases. “And take off your shirt,” she instructs, as she places all the items in her hands down on the bed before turning to head to the bathroom.

“Finally,” he sighs. “What I really came to Paris to do.”

MJ ignores his joke as she goes to the bathroom. He hears the sound of the sink running then a few seconds later she comes back into the room with a wet washcloth which she holds over what looks to be a cereal bowl (so she got room service without him, okay).

He feels the mattress dip as she climbs up to kneel beside him then quietly and efficiently she gets to work, first cleaning up his cuts with the washcloth then with alcohol. Stitching up anything that needs it and applying antibiotic cream over some of the nastier cuts that could get infected, then covering them up in dressing.

She finishes up by wrapping his likely bruised ribs then moves to get up to throw things away and put the rest away but he wraps a hand around her wrist and pulls her back to him so she lands in his lap.

Peter looks up at her, bringing his other hand up to brush her baby hairs away from her face to get a better look at her. “Hey, I’m okay,” he tells her, voice quiet and soft, only meant for her.

She looks over him for a moment then brings a hand up to trace along the angle of his jaw, taking him in and ensuring that he’s okay. “You really don’t know how to be on vacation, do you?”

That gets an unexpected laugh out of Peter, his head falling back as he lets out a chuckle. Once he has recovered he tilts his head back forward to face her, “I guess not, no.”

She wordlessly hums, her hand tracing a non-specific path along his jaw, his cheeks, over his messy eyebrow then up into his hair. Her touch is so tender and reverent that he can’t help but lean his head into her hand, head moving to follow along with her movements like a moth to light. It’s nice.

“Trust my Parker luck to ruin our-”

“Hey, do you wanna get married?” MJ asks seemingly out of the blue, interrupting him.

Peter sputters for a moment, trying to process what she’s just said. “ _What_? I mean- yeah, I do but I was gonna ask _you_. I had a whole plan and everything,” he says, trying to resist the urge to pout.

MJ just laughs at him before guiding his lips to hers using a hand on his chin. And as they kiss a languid, lazy kiss, he finds that he doesn’t mind that his entire plan to propose to her at the top of the Eiffel Tower has gone down the drain.

He doesn’t mind because once he’s fully healed the following evening MJ still lets him take her up to the top of the Eiffel Tower and give her the ring she confesses she’d found over four years ago when she’d tried (and failed) to tidy up his electronics drawer for him.

They do things slightly out of order and not according to his plan but as always, he gets the desired result more or less, right?

* * *

+1: The Mother's Day Plan

Over the last nearly fifteen years of being with MJ and various failed elaborate plans to woo her, Peter eventually relents that his plans aren’t all that successful or necessarily worthwhile and his wife (he’ll never get used to calling her that) has reassured him multiple times that the plans aren’t necessary in order to woo her. “You already have me, you dumbass” she’d told him once in the middle of the night as she pressed a sloppy misplaced kiss to the corner of his mouth, softer and more affectionate in her sleepy haze.

But even though he’s resolved to give up on all his MJ plans, when his daughter brings up the idea of forming a plan for Mother’s Day all that goes out of the window, his excitement at the prospect of taking the time to plan out something to show his appreciation for MJ overcoming any trepidations he may have about another plan given the way his previous plans have gone.

This time though, he mostly lets May (Junior) take over in terms of the planning stage since she seems to take more from her mother so he figures they might have more success if it’s coming more from her.

  1. **Wake MJ up with a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes (“because they’re her favorite, trust me daddy” his daughter had told him though part of him suspects they’re actually May’s favorite and she wants to be able to eat the pancakes with her mom) but the breakfast can’t be in bed because MJ now has a strict no food in bed rule ever since _some people_ (Peter and May) got sugar from their sour gummy worms all over the sheets a few weeks back.**
  2. **Take MJ to the hybrid café that’s also a library and cat café on the corner of 5 th Peter initially introduced MJ to on their (unsuccessful) official first date that became one of her favorite places and get her her favorite tea and spend a few hours there whilst MJ reads.**
  3. **Go on the rooftop of their building and have a family picnic and this time- as per May’s suggestion- because it’s on their own rooftop, they can keep the blankets and food in their apartment whilst they’re at the café then Peter can leave a few minutes ahead of MJ and May to go and set up their picnic as opposed to leaving it all set up the way he’d done all those years ago which had resulted in the picnic getting ruined by pigeons.**
  4. **Share the sandwiches from Delmar’s and Hershey’s cookies and cream kisses that MJ will slap Peter’s hand away if he tries to help himself to but will gladly let May have some of.**
  5. **Witness the sunset together as a family then move back into their apartment before it gets too cold to be up on the rooftop.**



On the morning of not actually Mother’s day but on the Saturday morning right before Mother’s Day, things start off well with him and May waking up a still sleepy but smiley and appreciative MJ to a pancake breakfast they serve her in the kitchen.

After they’re done eating MJ goes off to shower and get ready for the day they have planned for her whilst him and May work to clean up and do the dishes; it’s mostly him doing the cleaning whilst May sits by the kitchen table micro-managing him.

Once they’re done cleaning up and MJ is ready, the trio then head to the hybrid café place, where Peter is most looking forward to watching his girls ignore him completely and be totally captivated by their books.

MJ orders a green tea, May a hot chocolate because much like her mother even though it’s a very warm spring this year she refuses to drink cold/iced drinks, then a Frappuccino- 75% whipped cream and 25% coffee- for him.

They settle into their usual corner table by the window, and as expected, both MJ and May immediately dive into the books they each picked out from the shelves of the café and promptly ignore his existence. He’s content to just watch their matching facial expressions of concentration, brows similarly furrowed and bottom lips caught between their teeth as they both focus on the words on the page.

He’s settling back into his chair to get more comfortable when his phone buzzes with a crime alert a few blocks away from where they are.

Peter sighs, slightly disappointed, and looks apologetically up at May and MJ who both reassure him he can go and they’ll see him later without bothering to look up at him. He smiles bemusedly at how similar their daughter is to MJ before he rushes out of the restaurant to go and deal with the crime alert.

It turns out to be an on-going police chase, and he swings through the city following the car the police are in pursuit of to the edges of the city before he eventually finds an opening to land on top of the car and manoeuvre it to a stop just as the police squad cars that were a bit farther behind finally catch up to apprehend the suspects.

After that he starts making his way back to the café but along his way he sees a few people that need Spider-Man’s help- he helps a kitten stuck in a tree, stops a would be pick-pocket here and there along with a handful of purse snatchers, then helps the electronic goods store carry their heavy delivery boxes into their store. 

By the time he gets back to the café he finds MJ and May sat in the back corner with the owners’ cats that comprise the “cat café” part of the hybrid café so he goes to join them. He’s slightly disappointed he didn’t get to watch them in their own little worlds, enthralled by their novels earlier but this is still nice.

And as if she’s read his mind, May hands him MJ’s phone and shows him various pictures she took of her mom whilst she was reading along with a few MJ took of May, showing him what he’d missed out on.

They stay amongst the cats for a while before Peter eventually gets up to head back to the apartment ahead of MJ and May so he can set up their rooftop picnic.

Just as he’s finishing setting everything up, MJ and May come up onto the roof and the family of three settle on the blanket and dig into their sandwiches. Once they finish those, MJ and May chat animatedly as they eat far too many Hershey’s kisses that they won’t share with Peter but he finds that he doesn’t mind so much, content to just watch the two of them.

The sun is setting in front of them, casting his favorite golden hue over his wife and their daughter, their eyes glittering in the sunlight in a similar fashion. His mouth stretches into a lazy, wide smile as he watches on as if he can’t help it.

He thinks his plans aren’t all that bad surely if they’ve led him to this perfect moment as part of a perfect life he’s built with the perfect woman and their equally perfect daughter.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I am alive lol. I know it's been a while and I've yet to update any of the multi-chaps I said I'd update but it's been a busy few weeks w uni, my bad but I'm trying my best. I have no idea wth this monster of a fic is and it basically wrote itself then I promptly dumped it on here but I hope you enjoyed it somewhat. As always, comments and kudos are much appreciated!!!
> 
> Find me on twitter @dayaspsychic and on tumblr @tvfanatic97-2 if you wanna freak out about FFH w me x


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